1 Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS) (ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4978-207X [E.G.-N.]).
2 Centre of Animal Science Study, Institute of Science, Technology and Agroenvironment (CECA-ICETA).
J Food Prot. 2018 Nov;81(11):1890-1896. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-18-266.
Food chain information (FCI) is a mandatory component of meat inspection in the European Union. In Portugal there has been no assessment of FCI regarding risk-based meat inspection. The goal of the present study was to assess the quality and the usefulness of data provided by farmers. A total of 1,694 reports (989 for bovine animals, 575 for swine, and 130 for small ruminants) submitted to nine red meat slaughterhouses between September 2015 and January 2017 were analyzed. These reports covered a total of 79,889 animals. Overall, information was provided for the majority of the general identification items. To assess the quality of the information on health status, medication, disease occurrence, diagnostic tests, and results of previous ante- and postmortem exams, responses were classified as plausible, "nothing to declare," invalid, and nonresponse. Plausible information was provided by farmers on health status, medication, tests, and diseases on 82.7, 24.6, 5.4, and 0.1% of the FCI forms, respectively. More than 70% of the responses in all categories except health status were "nothing to declare." In pigs, when comparing ante- and postmortem inspection results with the corresponding FCI, no relevant contribution of the FCI was observed. Inaccurate or irrelevant information was provided for the majority of the detailed questions, impeding the formulation of appropriate risk-based meat inspection decisions. Farmers seem to have difficulty providing specific information. Better forms and better training are needed. Information on the prevalence of biological hazards relevant to public health currently is not available. Our results support the need to improve the systems used to obtain and integrate relevant information from the farm to the slaughterhouse.
食物链信息（FCI）是欧盟肉类检验的强制性组成部分。在葡萄牙，尚未对基于风险的肉类检验进行 FCI 评估。本研究的目的是评估农民提供的数据的质量和有用性。分析了 2015 年 9 月至 2017 年 1 月期间向 9 个红肉屠宰场提交的总共 1694 份报告（牛 989 份，猪 575 份，小反刍动物 130 份）。这些报告共涵盖了 79889 只动物。总体而言，大多数一般识别项目都提供了信息。为了评估健康状况、用药、疾病发生、诊断测试以及先前的宰前和宰后检查结果信息的质量，将答复分为合理、“无申报”、无效和无答复。农民在 FCI 表上分别对健康状况、用药、测试和疾病提供了合理的信息，分别占 82.7%、24.6%、5.4%和 0.1%。除健康状况外，所有类别中的 70%以上的答复都是“无申报”。在猪中，将宰前和宰后检查结果与相应的 FCI 进行比较时，未观察到 FCI 的任何相关贡献。对于大多数详细问题，提供的信息不准确或不相关，这妨碍了制定适当的基于风险的肉类检验决策。农民似乎难以提供具体信息。需要更好的表格和更好的培训。目前，有关与公共卫生相关的生物危害的流行信息尚不可用。我们的研究结果支持需要改进从农场到屠宰场获取和整合相关信息的系统。
